SAN BERNARDINO >> In a variation of a routine she repeats dozens of times nearly every day, Maria Sanchez squirted on some hand sanitizer, sat on a folding stool she’d brought with her, and adopted a cuddly tone as she stroked the kittens at the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter.

Her words, however, were hard.

“They’re just killing machines,” Sanchez said, referring to some staff members she sees as uncaring and to a euthanasia rate she considers unacceptable.

Sanchez and others from the area and from other countries have made similar complaints in more than 100 emails they’ve sent to shelter staff and city officials in recent months, often with pictures of dogs and cats they say could have been rescued but were killed instead. Facebook posts and other social media have drawn concern and outrage from animal lovers worldwide.

Police Capt. Raymond King, who oversees the shelter because of a departmental consolidation that came just after the city filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2012, said he reads each of the emails and looks into specific charges and areas for improvement.

But he said he sees no evidence of the legal violations suggested in the emails. In fact, the euthanasia rate has dropped from 66 percent in the first half of 2012 to 45 percent in the first half of 2013, and adoption rates went up by a similar percentage, according to statistics he gathered for an upcoming report to the City Council reacting to the complaints. The 2012 figure was third-highest among the 13 shelters that reported to San Bernardino County that year, and compares to 49 percent statewide for 2011, the most recent year the California Department of Public Health released its numbers.

“If I could get every animal rescued or adopted, I would,” King said. “Unfortunately, our intake numbers are overwhelming.”

Balancing act

There’s no specific capacity for the city shelter southeast of Orange Show Road and E Street — it depends on the size of the animals, among other factors — but the 17,000 animals taken in every year require a careful balancing act, King said.

By state law, strays are kept for four business days unless they meet one of a few special considerations such as extreme aggression or illness.

“If the animal is not sick or anything and we have room, we’ll keep it as long as we can — even if it’s been six, seven, eight days,” King said. “There’s one dog that had been in there for a couple weeks, because we could hold onto that dog.”

But sometimes that isn’t done, said Sanchez, who said she and others are preparing a lawsuit.

“The main issue is they’re killing dogs before they’re available — when they do the intake, they make mistakes (on the intake date) and just go by what’s on the record rather than double checking,” she said. “They’re killing dogs that have rescue holds.”

There are serious problems at the shelter, but blame doesn’t belong with shelter staff, said Sharon Gaitan-Blechinger, manager at The Mexico Cafe and founder of San Bernardino’s Helping Every Animal League.

“It’s a pretty dire situation, honestly,” she said. “When you walk in, it’s a clean place, real typical (of animal shelters). The problems lie with a problem that hasn’t been addressed for 40 years — honestly, it’s the community. The majority of them are irresponsible. They don’t spay and neuter their animals, and so you have a huge number of dogs going through there and not enough people to adopt them.”

On top of that, Gaitan-Blechinger said, the shelter is “ridiculously understaffed.”

To her, the solution is stricter enforcement of a city ordinance requiring owners to spay or neuter their pets. She brought forward a plan three years ago that involved slapping noncompliant owners with administrative civil penalties but simultaneously offering free spaying and neutering to avoid that.

The plan’s framework — and the grim assessment of the shelter — was approved by several of the candidates at a mayoral forum Saturday in response to Gaitan-Blechinger’s question, giving her some hope the situation may slowly improve.

“I think if HEAL continues to plug away, we’ll get somewhere,” she said. “As usual, HEAL will get the community involved. That’s how we get our money.”

The Humane Society of the San Bernardino Valley looked into the complaints and found none that it could act on, said Officer Michael Ashbaker, the humane society’s cruelty investigator.

“I have not been able to find anything where an animal has been euthanized before its mandatory holding period unless there was something like health issues or an aggressive animal,” Ashbaker said. “When this first started, we did make contact, our department, with the contract veterinary facilities they use for veterinary services. We did ask the veterinarian facilities if they had ever received an animal that they felt should have been seen sooner, and their answer was vehemently ‘no.’”

Questions of whether an animal was properly given to its owner are a matter for a civil lawsuit, not criminal investigation, Ashbaker said.

Many of the people making complaints against San Bernardino’s shelter have previously — or simultaneously — made similar charges about Devore Shelter, which is run by the county. The San Bernardino County Grand Jury investigated those claims and found no evidence or recommendations for improvement in its 2012 report.

“We’ve dealt with complaints with probably every shelter in the area at one time or another,” Ashbaker said. “Any time you’re dealing with the old adage, kids and animals, emotions are going to run high. People tend to think with their hearts and not their minds.”

In August, the council approved the hiring of two part-time shelter attendants and a full-time animal shelter office supervisor, in addition to the 21 full-time employees now working for the shelter.

And the mayor and some City Council members have toured the facilities, finding no problems.

Councilman Chas Kelley said he “has some concerns regarding the issues that have been brought forth through the emails,” which is why he’s asked the city manager to bring the council a proposal for the shelter.

“On two occasions, as these concerns have been brought forward to this council member, I’ve asked from the dais what can be done to address this and have encouraged public-private partnerships or other solutions,” said Kelley, who is running for mayor. “We can’t simply ignore this problem. If that means we are contracting with a government entity — i.e. the county — or we are looking at a public/private partnership… As you heard, they said they would bring something to us. At the next council meeting, if nothing is brought to us, I will begin the formal process of putting it on the agenda.”

Larger shelter?

Police Chief Robert Handy said last week that he had just reviewed a draft of a report that will soon go to the City Council responding to each of the claims made against the shelter.

There’s been some movement toward a potential joint-powers authority with other municipalities to help with the shelter, but nothing formal, Handy said.

“(The report) answers each of the allegations specifically — why a particular dog was euthanized, that kind of stuff — and then it goes into where we’re headed for the future,” Handy said.

Tentative plans include the construction of a larger shelter, he said.

Those plans were also shot down in one of the emails.

“They want to be able to take in many more animals, which translates directly into many more $ in their pocket,” wrote Amanda Gillen, a veterinarian from Santa Clarita who says she has treated some animals from San Bernardino that showed signs of poor care. “Not because there’s more need, not because they can adequately care for the numbers they have, not because their adoption rates are so high, and their programs so great, that they can get more animals adopted. Simply because more animals in = more $$$ in the pockets of those running the show.”

The criticisms do wear on the shelter staff, King said.

“We are human,” he said. “If something goes wrong, you correct it and you deal with the problem. What I can’t reinforce enough is we have dedicated, professional staff down there. They’re not mean, they’re not vindictive. If their heart isn’t in this, they shouldn’t be here, but it is.”

Volunteers are also key to the operation, King said. Anyone interested in volunteering can call the 909-384-5742 or go online to animal control section of the Police Department website for more information.

“You can’t put a price on the work that they do,” he said. “They’re the unsung heroes. And we appreciate their help and their compassion and their work.”

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